Clara Taylor, center, looks up to the sky as she answers a question as her her daughter, Tiffany, right, and sister Louvon Harris, left, listen after all three witnessed the execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, in Huntsville, Texas. Harris and Taylor are the sisters of James Byrd Jr. Brewer, 44, one of two purported white supremacists condemned for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., was executed Wednesday. Brewer was convicted for his participation in chaining Byrd to the back of a pickup truck, dragging the black man along a rural East Texas road and dumping what was left of his shredded body outside a black church cemetery in 1998. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Photo: David J. Phillip, AP

Clara Taylor, center, looks up to the sky as she answers a question...

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Family members of Lawrence Russell Brewer, mother Helen Brewer, left, father Lawrence Brewer Sr., center, and brother John, right, leave after witnessing his execution Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, in Huntsville, Texas. Brewer, 44, one of two purported white supremacists condemned for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., was executed Wednesday. Brewer was convicted for his participation in chaining Byrd to the back of a pickup truck, dragging the black man along a rural East Texas road and dumping what was left of his shredded body outside a black church cemetery in 1998. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Photo: David J. Phillip, AP

Family members of Lawrence Russell Brewer, mother Helen Brewer,...

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This undated handout photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Lawrence Russell Brewer, one of two purported white supremacists condemned for for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas, is set for execution Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice)

Photo: AP

This undated handout photo provided by the Texas Department of...

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FILE - James Byrd Jr., shown in this 1997 family photo, was tied to a truck and dragged to his death along a rural East Texas road early Sunday, June 7, 1998, near Jasper, Texas. Lawrence Russell Brewer, 44, one of two purported white supremacists condemned for Byrd’s death, is set for execution Wednesday for participating in chaining Byrd to the back of a pickup truck, dragging the black man along the road and dumping what was left of his shredded body outside a black church and cemetery. (AP Photo/Byrd Family Photo, File)

Photo: AP

FILE - James Byrd Jr., shown in this 1997 family photo, was tied to...

Appeals to the courts for Brewer were exhausted and no last-day attempts to save his life were filed.

Besides Brewer, John William King, now 36, also was convicted of capital murder and sent to Death Row for Byrd's death, which shocked the nation for its brutality. King's conviction and death sentence remain under appeal. A third man, Shawn Berry, 36, received a life prison term.

"One down and one to go," Billy Rowles, the retired Jasper County sheriff who first investigated the horrific scene, said. "That's kind of cruel but that's reality."

Byrd's sister, Clara Taylor, said someone from her brother's family needed to be present to watch Brewer die so she was among witnesses in the death chamber.

"He had choices," she said Tuesday, referring to Brewer. "He made the wrong choices."

While the lethal injection wouldn't compare to the horrible death her brother endured, "Knowing you're going to be executed, that has to be a sobering thought," she said.

It was about 2:30 a.m. on a Sunday, June 7, 1998, when witnesses saw Byrd walking on a road not far from his home in Jasper, a town of more than 7,000 about 125 miles northeast of Houston. Many folks knew he lived off disability checks, couldn't afford his own car and walked where he needed to go. Another witness then saw him riding in the bed of a dark pickup.

Six hours later and about 10 miles away on Huff Creek Road, the bloody mess found after daybreak was thought at first to be animal road kill. Rowles, a former Texas state trooper who had taken office as sheriff the previous year, believed it was a hit-and-run fatality but evidence didn't match up with someone caught beneath a vehicle.

Body parts were scattered and the blood trail began with footprints at what appeared to be the scene of a scuffle.

"I didn't go down that road too far before I knew this was going to be a bad deal," he said at Brewer's trial.

Fingerprints taken from the headless torso identified the victim as Byrd.

Testimony showed the three men and Byrd drove out into the country about 10 miles and stopped along an isolated logging road. A fight broke out and the outnumbered Byrd was tied to the truck bumper with a 24 1/2-foot logging chain. Brewer, King and Berry were arrested the next day.